I've spent the last few weeks somewhat obsessing over what my upcoming work scenario might be. Every parent I know with young kids struggles with the work/parent/life balance. It's such a challenge to figure it all out, and I want to find a job scenario that allows me to be happy, make a little bit of money, and still see my kids. Many of you have heard me go on about my options: go back to my old clinic, a large corporation, start my own small practice, another small clinic, etc. In the end I have had several good opportunities, and any of them would have probably been just fine. But I have come to a decision and am very excited.
I have decided to work at a small practice called Ability PT. It's at 95th and Arapahoe in Lafayette but really close to the Louisville/Boulder side. There are 5 members of staff in total, and I will soon be the 6th. I really like the owners and, if I were going to open up my own practice, it would be a lot like this. They've just done it for me and done it with more organization (eg. they accept all insurance). Bookings are 45 minutes long with the PT - no aides. Patient care and hands-on treatment are important to the company. Everyone who works for the company is young, friendly, and outgoing. It's an 8 minute easy drive from my house, so I could easily ride my bike/run/bus also.
I will start doing some shadow work and then start at just 16 hours per week in December. I hope to teach a few small classes out of the clinic on top of these patient hours as well. As I get busier, I expect to increase my hours over the next year. I'll aim to work about 24-30 hours per week eventually and plan to stay around that level for the next couple of years.
The owner and head therapist is going on mat leave with her second baby, so I will be picking up her caseload. I think she and I have similar values and treatment styles. She has also done some manual therapy training and she does dry needling. She is also trained in treating the pelvic floor of men and women, and has a huge passion for treating people with pelvic pain, incontinence, pregnancy and peri-partum, etc. This part of things is mostly new to me. I will take the training for all this and the clinic owner will serve as my mentor to teach me what I need to know. It's this learning environment that I'm really looking forward to. I will still treat athletes and every other joint and muscle as before, but I'll also be able to add more to my tool box.
I'm excited to learn a whole new stream of physical therapy. There are about 7 specialty tracts that you can pursue as a therapist. To date, I've pursued a lot of orthopedics (and formally became a board certified 'specialist' in May), sports, and needling work. In the 'women's health' specialty, there are two areas: a) obstetrics and b) pelvic. I'm really interested in the obstetric side of things (everything related to pregnancy, birth, and post partum), but won't start that until August 2014 when that first course comes to Colorado. There are 5 core courses and each are 3 days long. Two are obstetric courses and three are pelvic. In between each course there is reading, mentorship, and experience required. Eventually I will also take the needling course for needling the pelvic floor muscles.
So I will take part 1 of the pelvic courses in January and part 2 in Feb/March and go from there. It's not cheap training, and will take me to South Carolina and Oregon, but I'm thrilled about the idea of taking more courses. With the exception of caring for Ava.
Ava took about 3 oz. of milk at daycare over 4.25 hours the other morning at our 'trial' morning. She will have a handful more 'drop off' days in the next while as I do my shadowing hours. She will take a few sips of milk and then reject more. I need her to be able to take enough milk to let me work a whole day in about 6 weeks. And although she will be ready to start solids in January, we know that babies get most of their nutrition from breastmilk until they are 12 months old. I keep hoping that she will take it if she is hungry enough, and then it will become a learned skill that she is good at. Daycare seems confident that she will figure it out.
I didn't leave Rachel overnight until she was 16 months old, and I weaned her for the purpose of going out of town. I'm not exactly sure how I will take these courses and care for Ava. Either I leave her with Jason and daycare and leave loads of milk, then pump and dump while I am out of town... or bring Ava with me and hope to find a sitter for her while I am on course and still be able to give her pumped milk and feed her in the evening/overnight/morning myself. So if you know of anyone in Greenville, SC that could help me out with Ava in January... that would be awesome!! Either way, she must become a pro at taking a bottle soon!
Anyway, I am really excited about this set up and am looking forward to returning to work soon. Check out the clinic website below if you are interested.
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